"Sister... Sister! Wake up!"
Her little brother's voice seemed to come from a very distant place, initially just intermittent echoes, only later gradually becoming clear, like someone forcefully slapping the surface of water, dragging Miko rawly back to the shore from the place she was sinking into.
The young girl abruptly snapped her eyes open, her chest feeling stifled as if something had pressed over it, and she subconsciously took a deep breath, yet felt the air also carried a damp, chilly moisture, looking exactly as if she hadn't completely snapped out of it from that dream yet.
There were no lights turned on in the room, the curtains were only pulled open a crack, and the streetlight outside poked in like a long, thin needle, shining right on the edge of the bed, plating a shallow, bright line along the edge of the blanket.
"Hurry up and get up to eat dinner!" Kyousuke lay propped on the edge of the bed, forcefully patting the blanket: "Besides, sis, are you alright? Just now you kept talking strange nonsense in your sleep."
"Dream..."
Miko blinked her golden eyes, her fingers slowly gripping the blanket tightly, while her other hand instinctively fumbled around the nightstand; only after putting on the black-framed glasses that came from that senior did she finally calm down a bit, her reason also returning once more.
The river in that dream was still right before her eyes, and she could even remember that kind of thick, viscous reflection on the water's surface.
Standing on the opposite bank of the river were many people, densely packed, shoulder to shoulder; nobody was speaking, and nobody was moving, merely gazing together toward this side, looking exactly as if they were waiting for a certain moment of 'beginning'.
She couldn't see their faces clearly, and could only sense that kind of gaze—rather than saying they were looking, it was better to say that the massive, sprawling shadows on the opposite bank of the river were currently coveting this side.
What made her heart turn even colder was that even though the opposite bank was clearly packed with people, there wasn't a shred of human sound, no friction of clothes, and no footsteps, looking exactly like the legendary Yomotsu Hirasaka.
At the instant she woke up, that absolute quiet was still stuck to her eardrums, making Kyousuke's voice in reality sound bizarre too, as if separated by water.
"Did I... fall asleep?"
Miko raised her hand and pressed her temples, her palms having sweat, her fingertips icy cold.
She remembered that after she returned home, she had merely lain on the bed wanting to take a short nap, without even taking off her school uniform jacket, her phone still gripped in her hand, only the screen had long since gone black.
After all, even if the other party harbored no malice, a matter like being kidnapped was still too stimulating—of course, compared to her daily life before obtaining the Mystic Eye Killers, it hadn't yet stimulated her to that kind of extent, that was all.
"Where's mom?"
"Mom is still working overtime; she just squeezed out some time to come back and make dinner, it's all frozen food anyway." Kyousuke saw that she was finally fully awake, and only then did he secretly let out a sigh of relief, yet he still didn't leave the bedside; he gripped the hem of his pajamas and asked in a small voice: "Sis, did you have a nightmare?"
"No, you're overthinking it."
Miko shook her head; she didn't want to make her family worry about her, it was like this back when she could see those distorted ghosts, and it remained so now: "Why would you think that, Kyousuke?"
"Because when you were talking in your sleep just now, your expression looked slightly pained," her little brother answered: "Exactly as if you were drowning."
"Drowning..."
Miko couldn't resist remembering that dream again.
When she was clearly standing on the shore in her dream, why would there be a sensation of drowning?
No, that's not right.
At the very beginning, she was indeed standing on the shore, but along with those people on the opposite bank silently drawing closer, the boundary between the shore and the river seemed to experience a certain blurriness...
"I heard that if you drown in a dream, you'll wet the bed. Thank me for waking you up, sis!" Kyousuke looked at his older sister with a smug little face, bearing an expression completely saying 'I saved your life, preventing you from suffering a social death'.
Miko rolled her eyes: "Then thank you very much indeed. Next time you wet the bed, I'll keep it a secret for you too."
"I stopped wetting the bed long ago! No, I've never wet the bed before!" Kyousuke, who was still just an elementary school student, instantly had his defense broken and clamored out loudly.
The young girl paid no heed to her little brother's protest; she sat up and stepped her feet onto the floor, finding the floor was also abnormally cold, and one had to know it was currently summer.
She subconsciously peered toward the hallway outside her bedroom door; it was dusk, and the sun hadn't completely sunk below the mountains yet, so the lights weren't turned on at home, but precisely because of this, the darkness in the hallway was exceptionally deep, looking at a glance as if it had no end.
Even knowing it was just normal darkness, Miko still swallowed a mouthful of saliva; she subconsciously pushed the glasses on the bridge of her nose, and pressed the temples tightly as if completing a certain ritual.
"Lately sis has always treasured these glasses very much," Kyousuke asked in a tone that sounded as if he didn't care much: "Are you nearsighted?"
"Yeah, slightly."
Miko gave a half-hearted, perfunctory reply.
Liar.
Kyousuke shouted out loudly in his heart.
At the very beginning, he also thought his own sister had merely developed ordinary nearsightedness, but after a period of time passed, he visibly felt that something was amiss: ever since his sister managed to get this pair of glasses from who-knows-where, she always wore them, to the extent that she wouldn't even take them off when taking a bath.
And just now while his own sister was sleeping, he stealthily tried them out and discovered that, sure enough, these weren't any nearsightedness glasses at all, but plain lenses with zero prescription!
Considering his sister's usual aesthetics were fairly normal, it was impossible for her to suddenly want to use an old-fashioned pair of black-framed glasses to doll herself up, so the origin of this pair of glasses was highly suspicious.
Considering that sis would even deliberately tell a lie saying they were nearsightedness glasses, which is to say she doesn't want to disclose their origin to her family...
As expected, she has a man on the outside, right!
Kyousuke felt he could already don a detective hat, graduate from the detective manga that little kids watch, and start studying detective novels that are completely filled with text.
Miko naturally didn't know her little brother's inner thoughts were so rich; she merely put on her slippers and stood up.
Although it was just a nightmare, Miko nonetheless always felt that something wasn't quite right.
Perhaps it would be better to tell this matter to Mr. Asakura. The young girl said so in her heart.
She lit up her phone screen, trying to give Asakura a phone call, but for some unknown reason, the call didn't connect.
The unease in the young girl's heart instantly magnified.
Thereupon, she gave Fujiwara Chika a phone call as well, which similarly didn't connect.
"I'm going outside for a bit." Miko put away her phone, trying her best to speak in a normal tone, even squeezing out a bit of a smile as if to soothe her little brother, "I suddenly remembered I have some business."
Her hand, however, had already extended toward the back of the chair, lifting up the bag hung there.
The friction of the bag strap let out a tiny sound, sounding somewhat piercing to the ear in the quiet room.
She didn't dare let Kyousuke see that she was trembling, so she used speedier movements to unzip it, confirming the contents inside as if nothing were amiss: her phone, loose change, and keys were all there.
Kyousuke clearly didn't quite believe her; he stood up and followed her by two steps, his brow knitting tightly, visibly exceptionally discontented: "This late? Where are you going? At least eat dinner before talking about it, right?"
"Sorry, I won't eat at home... I, I have a friend who invited me to go stroll around the festival for the Obon Festival." Miko said casually.
"Is it sister Hana?"
"Y-Yeah, that's right."
"Liar."
Kyousuke looked at his own sister coldly: "Sister Hana went on a trip to Okinawa with her family, and you were the one who said so."
"Ugh..."
Miko was struck dumb for a moment, never expecting her little brother to be so perceptive, setting a trap in this kind of place to trick her into exposing her own words.
"Is it that fellow named Asakura?" The elementary school detective pressed on step by step.
"Why do you know this name?"
"Because on your phone, besides me, there is only this one man's name."
"Ugh..."
"Will he become my brother-in-law?"
"Haah? No, don't let your mind wander wildly like that!"
Miko said in a flurry.
But in her heart, she couldn't help letting her train of thought branch out a bit: If Mr. Asakura could really... um, establish an intimate relationship with her, then she would never have to worry about those distorted monsters ever again, right?
However, thinking about it like this gave her a subtle sense of guilt, as if she were merely exploiting him, making it hard to let go...
Looking at his older sister's face—which showed a disgusting smile one moment and was filled with disappointment the next—Kyousuke couldn't help but nod with certainty:
"As expected, it really is about a man."
That guy named Asakura, it's necessary to investigate him!
And Miko, after her mind was muddled for a brief moment, quickly calmed down again—to be fair, her psychological fortitude was exceptionally good, even far stronger than most members in the Magic Club.
"Sorry, I really have to go out for a bit!"
She said earnestly to her little brother: "Dinner... Kyousuke, you'll have to eat it all by yourself."
"I know."
Kyousuke let out a sigh.
Since things had come to this, for the sake of his big sister's road to romance, he, as the younger brother, could only back down for now.
Miko gently stroked her sensible little brother's small head.
Then, she put on her bag and prepared to head to the festival venue of the Obon Festival.
Yet right at this moment, a very soft cough suddenly drifted from deep within the hallway.
It wasn't Kyousuke's, and naturally, it wasn't hers either.
That cough was highly restrained, as if it were reminding her of his presence.
Miko's shoulders instantly froze, her spine tensed up, and her breathing also lost its rhythm at that exact moment.
She slowly turned her head, but the hallway behind her lenses was completely empty; in fact, judging from her little brother's reaction, he probably didn't hear the sound just now either.
But Miko knew that someone was existing right there.
That middle-aged man wearing the familiar shirt from her memories, his figure slightly hunched, his hair graying, and his expression always so gentle.
Her dad, who had died in an accident.
Ever since she obtained the spiritual vision capability of the Spirit Sight, the young girl could see her own father, who seemed to have turned into an earthbound spirit, inside her own house.
However, responding to the ghosts to let them know she could see them was clearly not a rational choice. Miko was also worried that if she acted rashly, it might cause her father to turn into some strange monster, so she had never responded, always pretending she didn't see him.
"Miko." At this moment, the other party actually called out her name, his voice very light, carrying a hollow voidness that didn't belong to the living, sounding as if it came through the wall, "It's so late, where are you going?"
Miko's throat tightened, making her nearly unable to speak.
Kyousuke clearly couldn't see that person in the hallway; he only saw Miko suddenly freeze, her face instantly turning pale, and her fingers gripping the bag strap tightly.
The boy asked in a panic: "Sister? What's wrong?"
Hearing her brother's voice, Miko finally snapped back to reality, barely steadying her breathing.
She didn't look back at Kyousuke, but merely raised her hand, awkwardly stroking her brother's hair: "It's nothing, you go eat first. I don't know when I'll be back. If it's too late, you take a bath and go to sleep by yourself, okay?"
"But—"
"Go back." She tried her best to make her tone sound firm.
Kyousuke bit his lip, clearly still wanting to persist, but after seeing his sister's eyes, he took a step back, seemingly frightened by the sheer resolve that had never appeared on his sister's face before.
The boy walked downstairs, turning his head back with every step, only muttering softly as he left: "Then... come back early."
The click of the door closing was very soft, yet it felt as if it packed the darkness inside the house one layer tighter.
Only Miko and her invisible old father were left in the hallway.
Miko finally raised her head. In fact, after she put on the Mystic Eye Killers and adapted to them for a period of time, not only could her eyes not see them, but even her ears could barely hear the voices of those monsters anymore; she didn't know if it was psychological or if the Mystic Eye Killers were just too strong.
The earthbound spirit of her father remaining in the house was the same, but now, beneath her surprise, the young girl felt a bit conflicted.
She didn't know if she should respond: theoretically speaking, she shouldn't pay attention to him since he was already dead, but emotionally, it made the young girl instinctively want to take off her glasses and have a proper conversation with her father.
In the end, until the very last moment, the girl still couldn't say anything; she merely silently tidied up her appearance and prepared to head out.
Then, she heard her father's voice once more.
"Don't go."
That voice was low and solemn, sounding exactly identical to the tone he used when speaking seriously during his lifetime.
Miko used all her strength just to prevent herself from instinctively asking "Why?"
"There... the ritual to welcome back the departed has ultimately been completed after all," Miko's father ignored whether his daughter could hear his words, merely continuing to mutter to himself, "The timing is ripe, life and death will invert... Tonight's Obon Festival... that side can barely be considered the domain of the living anymore."
He said.
"Don't go, Miko."
These words were like a bucket of cold water poured into Miko's heart.
She remembered the river in that dream, remembered those people standing on the opposite bank, remembered that orderly 'waiting', and what exactly those people were waiting for...
She gripped the bag strap even tighter, her knuckles turning white.
Mr. Asakura and Miss Fujiwara were still over there.
If her original intention to go was merely because she felt her damn spiritual vision capability might be of some help, then the reason to go now was far more absolute.
She had to warn them that something was currently happening...
Thinking up to this point, the young girl bit her lip, looking visibly terrified, yet she still left the house without the slightest hesitation, advancing toward the direction of the Obon Festival.
There were barely any people on the street, it was quiet to an excessive degree, yet it could also be described as somewhat noisy—even though she was at least three to five kilometers away from the venue, she could still faintly hear the drumbeats of the festival drifting over, making the liveliness extraordinary.
Miko gathered her courage and ran toward the sound of the crowd.